I exist. Existence, according to my limited understanding of a limited set of tools that is the English language, is defined as the state of "having objective reality". But if Einstein has taught us anything, then we should know that objectivity is relative to the eye of the observer. As an observer of myself, I can make an effort to describe what it is like to be me. So if “me” was an object with a boolean property called ‘exists’, I would make the executive decision to set its value to true (pardon the corny programming analogy). As Descartes put it, “I think, therefore I am.”
But who am I? Or rather, what is me? For the sake of understanding this book review, let’s make a distinction before proceeding. I will use I to refer to my consciousness and me to refer to the human being that I think I control.
In Waking Up, Sam Harris explores the idea of consciousness to explain how you can experience the spiritual benefits of religion while rejecting the potentially harmful dogmatisms that come with being a devout devotee. Harris states that:
Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel love and avoid loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person’s thoughts. Every waking moment—and even in our dreams—we struggle to direct the flow of sensation, emotion, and cognition toward states of consciousness that we value.
Furthermore, anything you do can either be done calmly and patiently, or angrily and begrudgingly. This reminds me of stoicism and the idea that although objective unpleasantness may exist, suffering is a result of your own perception. According to Harris, we can address mental suffering by either using our thoughts or standing free of them altogether. Gratitude, optimism, and having a growth mindset all fall under the bucket of using thoughts to counter other thoughts. Meditation is presented as a skill you can practice to rid your mind of thoughts, or at least step back and realise that thoughts are separate from what "you" truly are: your consciousness.
The rest of the book consists of Harris’ spiritual journey, spiritual topics in Buddhism and Hinduism, meditation techniques, and the role hallucinogens can play on the road to spiritual understanding. Reading Waking Up has benefited me in two main ways. First, while I have tried mindfulness meditation before, I’ve always struggled at being consistent with it. With a better understanding of its benefits, I hope to practise much more often now. Second, I have realised that I and me (as defined earlier) are not the same thing. I am the thinker of my thoughts, and as far as I am concerned, me is an idea that exists in my head. But me also seems to be the only interface that allows I to experience the world. I might only be my consciousness, but me is my inseparable best friend. The least I can do is treat me with respect—its past, present, and future forms.
IRL Update (06/18/2023): Either I’m getting better at finding time for reading or worse at finding time for writing. Anyhow, I finished this book in late May and only got around to writing this review now. By now I’ve already finished two other books and will hopefully write reviews for those sometime soon. Having this buffer time between finishing a book and writing about it is actually quite nice. It gives me more time to digest it and assess how significantly its ideas have impacted my daily life, so that I can give it a more honest rating.